Friday, December 28, 2007

week 1 goals

Goals for Week 1:
Pictures into guild for show
Carolina Crossroads - Kim cut - clue 1
Carolina Crossroads - mine cut - clue 1
Anything else I want!!!

I've decided to continue my whatever-I-want phase through the next week. Since I figured out the crayon quilt, watch that be the big thing I haul ass on all week! I'm just excited to have it figured out in my mind's eye.

week 52

Well nothing really happened here in week 52, except that I did get my Dad's quilt done.

I did also finish the top on the Peter/Hunter/generic boy quilt.

And then I promptly have done nothing.

Although I did take out the completed crayons for the crayon quilt and laid them out. I was able to see that the flaw that I thought was there in every crayon indeed is there in every crayon. I have made a design change, which requires doing some ripping, snorting and repiecing with Y seams on each crayon. On a few crayons, they will need more strips, as somehow they are not long enough. I also determined that the quilt will have to hang upside down in the show (the crayon points hanging down), as I have no idea how else to get a sleeve on the thing!

So not a lot of quilting after the holiday, but a real revelation in what to do with this quilt. So now it's just a matter of getting to it.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

nothing new

Nothing much. Last night DH and I watched a lot of Babylon 5 and tonight we plan more of the same. Sewing may just be on holiday right now.

Actually, I did clear off the extra table in our room so that I can put my old Kenmore on it. I want to quil the crayon quilt using that machine, so I have to set it up somewhere.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Carolina Crossroads Update

OK, OK, I missed Sunday to update. Sorry. Shoot me – I was a quilter on a mission to finish a gift. Gift accomplished and given. Dad loves it and is amazed that BOTH of his daughters made it.

I did ask my sister what other colors besides purple that she would want. She started with teal and then I explained I had no teal in my stash and she had to work within what I have. I suggested green, and even after explaining that not every green may go with every purple, she was game. So the conversion chart is:

Bonnie’s red = Kim’s purple = my pink
Bonnie’s blue = Kim’s green = my brown
Bonnie’s tan = Kim’s cream = my cream

I may need to buy a bit of fabric here and there to round out both the cream selection and the brown selection, but we shall see.

My sister does not handle angles well, so clue 4 is going to require some serious coaching on my part. Thank God she’s not doing the cutting. That would escape her altogether.

The goal is to cut on New Year’s Day during the various aspects of the Rose Bowl.

quickly checking in

Friday, Saturday and Sunday – I did get the Dad quilt 100% done (and the first 3 movies of Star Wars watched). I also got the borders on the Peter/Hunter/generic boy quilt on and started the process to piece the back for it.

Monday and Tuesday brought no quilting due to the holiday. I did do some gaming with my DH, which made his day.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Dad quilt - quilting update

20% quilted. And that took an hour. WE should make it without issues.

I hate borders and sandwiching. My sister even asked me if I was OK with doing this, as I didn't sound very happy. I told her I'm equal opportunity hate with part of the process.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Week 52 goals

Goals for Week 52:
Dad quilt done
Pictures into guild for show - meeting with them on the 28th anyway
Anything else I want!!!

I decided earlier in the week when I was taking a long look at what I need to finish by the guild show in March and what I want to finish by that point that between now and the new year, I get to sew on whatever I want. There are only 3 rules:

1. Dad quilt must be done
2. Don't start anything new until New Year's Day (come on Carolina Crossroads!!!)
3. The Dorothy Young Christmas mystery is 'legal'

At some point, I just need to move where the mojo takes me. This will all be in the land of UFO's. I may make some doll clothes for the new American Girl doll making her way to our house this Christmastime.

What I hope for is that a lot of quilts that have blocks done will make it into tops and get all the way through the process except for hand stitiching down the binding. Then having a ton of hand work next to every TV is a good thing and a great way to bust a lot of tivo.

Week 51

Goals for Week 51:
Peter/Hunter quilt – progress of some sort
Trifecta – quilted (or at least started…)
Crayon – red crayon done
Giftie – progress
Coasters giftie – done
Dad – progress
Tumbleweeds – find!!!
Pictures into guild for show

(Please note that this is nearly the same dang list!!!)

What I got done:

Friday – All Dad b locks done, giftie for SS all assembled. Giftie coaster also done.

Saturday – Completed hand sewing down the binding on the giftie.

Sunday – none – Schwitzner Sibling Christmas.

Monday – nothing.

Tuesday – nothing.

Wednesday – nothing.

Thursday – I got the Dad quilt going! Blocks are all set and the side borders are on. I will make it!!!

Thursday, December 20, 2007

well, at least the cards are done....

Nothing happened on the sewing front, but the Christmas cards (all 107 of them!) are done. So I consider that a victory.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

gift completed

Again, no progress. But there was sorta progress, really.

I did finish my organizer roll up thingy and filled it will all good quilty things and have it all ready to go to KS. And promptly left it at home this morning. So I will take it to mail this evening. the cover of the organizer is 3 stars made with Judy's tri-recs lessons. The inside has 5 zippered pouches and I will never sew with vinyl again after this disaster.

The pouches contained quilty goodness. 6 FQs - 3 pink, 3 brown (her colors), a box of flower head pins, a folding seam ripper, an add-a-quarter, a lint brush for the machine, a 1 x 6 mini omnigrid ruler and one of those little cut on one side, press on the other side thingys (I bought one for me too!). So that's a lot of quilty goodness. Plus the sewing Hallmark ornament for this year. I hope she likes her gift.

And that was the extent of the sewing yesterday. My next really big deadline is the Christmas itself. I need to finish the Dad quilt, which is at the completed blocks stage. Time to power-sew.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

No progress, but no backsliding either

Monday was the lost day. I didn’t get any sewing done, and I attempted to make fudge. Now, I really can make fudge, but this is a new range, so there are always adjustments to be made. This batch ended up too thin and it spilled on my hand as I was trying to pour it. OW OW OW!!!

Plus DD and I ate all the other fudge in the house that I made over the weekend. So at some point, I was a lump, trying to fight off the sugar crash. That I finished that one batch of fudge and made sense of the addresses for the Christmas cards is a minor miracle.

So no steps forward, sewing-wise, but none back either.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Snowy Update

Just a quick update.

We got a fair amount of snow and it blew and drifted everywhere, so it’s hard to measure exactly how much. I vote for 3 to 4 inches. DD was in her glory. Ted was exhausted from shoveling.

Friday saw the most sewing of the weekend. After I got DD through her second flu shot (evidently when you’re a kid and it’s your first flu shot ever, you need a booster) with a Happy Meal from the Golden Arches, we came home and I finished all the Dad blocks. I am now the proud owner of 72 Backroads to OK blocks. And with a week to spare!!!! I also worked on my Secret Santa gift, which is an organizer roll up thing. Man, I hate sewing vinyl. Grrrr. I got that all the way done except for handstitching the binding.

Based on our familial schedule for the weekend, I did not hold out illusions of grandeur about sewing lots. I did make 3 batches of fudge, 1 batch (2 loaves) of pumpkin bread and a batch of oatmeal cinnamon chip cookies. I also tidying the kitchen as I went and also went through some paperwork. I did squeeze in a 2 hour nap and I did finish the hand sewing on the coaster and the organizer thingy. I got done nearly everything I wanted to and at a reasonable pace. And DD made it through the eye doctor.

Sunday was the Schwitzner Sibling Christmas. My FIL has children from 2 different wives, so his children get together to celebrate. My FIL called in from FL to chat with them all. My SIL had the event, as she has the biggest home. She really wanted me to do it, because I had moved and it would be a great reason to visit, but we all got somewhere between 3 and 6 inches of snow. So it was better for only our family to be on the road than their 2 families. We brought all the desserts, which explains my baking.

So now all of my Christmas shopping is done. DH needs a Secret Santa gift for work in the $10 range. I need some wrapping paper and I need to do 2 more rounds of baking, but the only things left are to pack my SS box and mail it and to finish the Dad quilt. YIPPEE!!!

Sunday, December 16, 2007

CC update

As requested, this is my Carolina Crossroads weekly check in. I am still trying to figure out my 3 colors for my sister and then I decided (oh, hell's bells) that I'd do one too.

My goal is to send my sister each clue all prepared and cut and all she has to do is sew it. She has no stash and I have way too much. She is game. All I know for sure is that her accent color (Bonnie's red) will be purple.

My quilt is another story. I want to do pinks, browns and creams. But I do not know if I have enough of all 3 of those colors.

Stay tuned.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Week 51 goals

Goals for Week 51:
Peter/Hunter quilt – progress of some sort
Trifecta – quilted (or at least started…)
Crayon – red crayon done
Giftie – progress
Coasters giftie – done
Dad – progress
Tumbleweeds – find!!!
Pictures into guild for show

(Please note that this is nearly the same dang list!!!)

Week 50

Goals for Week 50:
Peter/Hunter quilt – progress of some sort
Trifecta – quilted (or at least started…)
Crayon – red crayon done
Giftie – progress
Coasters giftie – done
Dad – progress
Tumbleweeds – find!!!
Pictures into guild for show
LCRR – final strips for final block set

(Please note that this is the same dang list!!!)

Oh, and a gaudy sweatshirt for Chad at work. Oh boy!!!

What I got done:

Friday night – I started after the eye appointment debacle. I got started on the LCRR blocks and kept plugging away on the Dad quilt blocks. I also started 4 broken dishes blocks. What I did notice was that the safety on my rotary cutter kept giving out, thus making it unsafe to sew with. And so I had to run out on Saturday for a new one.

Saturday – What a day to sew! When we got home after the ice storm started, I was off to the sewing room. I was able to finish 4 more broken dishes blocks and 2 dozen of the Dad quilt blocks. Before we went out, I did finish the LCRR blocks. So once all of these things were done, I decided we needed a tree skirt. So I took out my blue and white snowflake fabric scrap stash and cut strips ranging from 1” to 3” (1/2” intervals) and did the stitch and flip method of QAYG. The skirt finished at 40” round. The new rotary cutter is fantastic!

Sunday – While watching 4 hours of Project Runway on the tivo, I got the entire tree skirt bound. It is beautiful and set up under our new 4 foot pre-lit tree. Of course, 5 hours later, I found my tub of Christmas fabrics intermixed with the Christmas décor boxes. While I didn’t sew any more on Sunday after 12 noon, I did indeed find the Xmas fabs and put them where they belonged, and went through and donated/threw out 2 footlockers and 1 more box full of fabrics. So while not a lot of sewing per se, I busted a ton of junk, which feels far better. Very little went down into the sewing room.

And the Chad sweatshirt is designed.

Monday – Let’s see. I sewed for a while on the Dad quilt, but didn’t get too far. I cleaned up some of the sewing space, which was required. I also started 2 more broken dishes blocks. I know I sewed for like 1.5 hours, but it doesn’t feel like I got a lot done. Hmmm…..

Tuesday – Got all 4 fussy cut items on the Chad sweatshirt and also sewed 20 more Dad blocks. The remaining 28 are at the point where construction will be easy.

Wednesday – Only fabric painting on the Chad sweatshirt.

Thursday – The Chad sweatshirt is done, bows and all.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Painting a plenty...

Last night proved to be an opportune time to run to the paint your pottery place and get DD to make her present for her dad. I made a tray to hold my sewing things by my nightstand and also on retreat. We also had a nice dinner together and overall it was a good evening.

Sewing-wise, I did outline the big Christmas tree on the back of the Chad sweatshirt and then wrote “I (heart) Christmas” inside the tree. That was a request from the person who started this. After 2 hours of fine painting at the pottery place, my hands were steady enough to handle the writing.

Tonight I have to finish the Chad sweatshirt. And hopefully do some more sewing, but my house needs some attention, as does my errand list for Friday.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Brick Free!!!!

The Chad sweatshirt is turning out really cutesy, which is just sick and wrong and wonderful. It’s now making the rounds of the floor about this event. People are bringing in cameras.

I did get more done on the Dad blocks. All the uphill and downhill units are done; I’m brick free! So whatever I need to steal from the extra units stacks to finish this quilt, I will. It’s going to be about 3 dozen units of each type. That will still leave me like 150 units total for the King quilt, so hey, it’s still a good deal in my book.

I did also watch the 2 part episode of Grey’s Anatomy and the other one on the tivo was a rerun, so I busted 3 hours of tivo stash, which also a good thing.

Tonight I hope to handle some Xmas errands with DD for DH while he is working reference (it’s finals week – all hands on deck!), so the sewing portion will most likely just be the Chad sweatshirt and a coaster for DH’s secret santa at work.

I was going to run up to guild tomorrow night, but going 120 miles in this weather, abated as it is, still doesn’t strike me as fun. It has to be a really compelling reason to go, and the meeting is not compelling enough.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Tuesday Musings (or is that Monday Musings?)

As I mentioned yesterday, I went through 2 footlockers and 2 bins/boxes of fabrics. It was FANTASTIC to get rid of so much stuff. I kept only quilty fabric (except from the from-Scotland Tartan plaid) and flung the rest. However, whatever I did keep and whatever I plan on donating made its way into the basement.

So now I am starting to dig out the sewing area once again. This seems to be a fortnightly event. However, this does mean that more things are being unearthed, more is being flung and I am able to assess the true size of my stash and my UFOs. Hopefully tonight I will be able to take one of the empty large banker’s boxes and go through the charity box and repack it neatly into the banker’s box. My guild does want me to cull out anything that they may enjoy. I really don’t think that there will be that much, but I will go through it and see.

I also need to do the Chad sweatshirt. I need to do one side tonight so the fabric paint can dry and then the other side tomorrow night. He will wear it on Friday, so I need to get it done. This will be a hoot.

I did make some progress on the Dad quilt, but I realized that I am nearly out of bricks. I decided to make half of the bricks uphill units and the other half downhill units (well, duh), but since each fabric usually had a pair of bricks, I put one brick in the Dad quilt pile and the other brick in the King scrappy quilt pile. So I have been double sewing, but I’m glad that I did. I will be able to just use some bricks from the King pile to finish off the Dad quilt. The amount of bricks that I have left to sew is small (maybe 36) and they will all be uphill units. And to top it off, I am double sewing each unit to get the bonus HSTs as well. So lots and lots of sewing to get these dang units!

Christmas is 2 weeks from today. I will make it with the Dad quilt, no problem. I have to finish 2 coasters, 1 roll up thing and 2 ornaments by Friday, plus the Chad sweatshirt by Friday. That is the more critical deadline at this point.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Weekend Update - I'm Chevy Chase...and you're not.

Friday night – I started after the eye appointment debacle. I got started on the LCRR blocks and kept plugging away on the Dad quilt blocks. I also started 4 broken dishes blocks. What I did notice was that the safety on my rotary cutter kept giving out, thus making it unsafe to sew with. And so I had to run out on Saturday for a new one.

Saturday – What a day to sew! When we got home after the ice storm started, I was off to the sewing room. I was able to finish 4 more broken dishes blocks and 2 dozen of the Dad quilt blocks. Before we went out, I did finish the LCRR blocks. So once all of these things were done, I decided we needed a tree skirt. So I took out my blue and white snowflake fabric scrap stash and cut strips ranging from 1” to 3” (1/2” intervals) and did the stitch and flip method of QAYG. The skirt finished at 40” round. The new rotary cutter is fantastic!

Sunday – While watching 4 hours of Project Runway on the tivo, I got the entire tree skirt bound. It is beautiful and set up under our new 4 foot pre-lit tree. Of course, 5 hours later, I found my tub of Christmas fabrics intermixed with the Christmas décor boxes. While I didn’t sew any more on Sunday after 12 noon, I did indeed find the Xmas fabs and put them where they belonged, and went through and donated/threw out 2 footlockers and 1 more box full of fabrics. So while not a lot of sewing per se, I busted a ton of junk, which feels far better. Very little went down into the sewing room.

And the Chad sweatshirt is designed.

Friday, December 07, 2007

Week 50 goals

Goals for Week 50:
Peter/Hunter quilt – progress of some sort
Trifecta – quilted (or at least started…)
Crayon – red crayon done
Giftie – progress
Coasters giftie – done
Dad – progress
Tumbleweeds – find!!!
Pictures into guild for show
LCRR – final strips for final block set

(Please note that this is the same dang list!!!)

Oh, and a gaudy sweatshirt for Chad at work. Oh boy!!!

Week 49

Goals for Week 49:
Peter/Hunter quilt – progress of some sort
Trifecta – quilted (or at least started…)
Crayon – red crayon done
Giftie – progress
Coasters giftie – done
Dad – progress
Tumbleweeds – find!!!
Pictures into guild for show
LCRR – final strips for final block set

What I got done:
Friday – 11/30/07 - I bought fabric for the last LCRR I ever plan on doing in my life and also thread to quilt the snow coasters and the Trifecta quilt. I also bought a SideWinder, which I didn’t think I needed and then my bobbin winder broke.

Saturday and Sunday – Kim and I really made some serious headway into the Dad quilt. She made the 72 center 4 patches and also started to attach white squares to downhill HST bricks. That was a huge help. I started making the uphill bricks and worked on the LCRR.

Monday – I crashed, man. Sleep. Zzzzzzzz…..

Tuesday – No quilting here because DD had her little winter program at school. It was so cute to see 200 kindergarteners and first graders singing their little hearts out!

Wednesday – I decided to move my insurance exam by one month and I am so relieved! However, still no sewing last night, as I made cookies instead, plus did some laundry, helped DD with homework and those types of things. Plus volunteering at the school. Thursday’s goal is 4 inches of snow and a lot of piecing!

Thursday – I finally made it down to the sewing room! I got lots of progress made on probably all the wrong things! I worked on more coasters. I really just need one for the giftie, but I want all of those bonus HST’s sewn up and handled. I was able to get all of them pressed and sorted into stacks, so I have 15 more coasters to go. I am making little broken dishes blocks. I’ve decided (because I am BRILLANT!!!!) to use 18 of them as the squares in the January Quilted Table runner of the month. I have some bright blue snowflake fabric I can use for the rectangles and one or two white snowflake FQ’s (or maybe some scraps) for the stars. Yay!

And then I kept on sewing on the Dad quilt. Kim got the 4 patches done, so I started adding a side pice to a bunch of them. I also kept making uphill units and working on sewing the corner squares to the top and bottom row units, which use the downhill units I already have made.

No LCRR progress. Must finish tonight and mail tomorrow before the bad weather comes.

Snow clocked in at about 2 inches.

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Wednesday - not quilting better, but mental health better!

I decided to move my insurance exam by one month and I am so relieved! However, still no sewing last night, as I made cookies instead, plus did some laundry, helped DD with homework and those types of things. Plus volunteering at the school. Thursday’s goal is 4 inches of snow and a lot of piecing!

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Tuesday

No quilting here because DD had her little winter program at school. It was so cute to see 200 kindergarteners and first graders singing their little hearts out!

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Monday

Zzzzzzzzz................I went to bed at 8pm, I was so dead.....

Monday, December 03, 2007

I'm back

I'm back. I beat the storm to Chicago and also came home after all the ice had melted and eerything had passed. The Bears lost, but the rain stopped as the game started and the wind wasn't that bad. I had a good time, personally.

Kim and I really got far on the Dad quilt. She made the 4 patch centers and I worked on the uphill and downhill units. Then I had her start assembled the parts to make the top row of each block and she flew on that. The more we get done now, the more time I have to study.

Saturday, December 01, 2007

Travelling

I have Bears tickets for Sunday in Chicago, so I am leaving within the hour to get there. Check weather.com for 61761 where I live and you can see all about the evil ice storm coming. Ted ran to Meijer to get a campstove in case the power goes out. Then he can at least cook for himself and DD. I will have to stop in Morris for my machine and that is an hour detour, but well worth it. I should be in Brookfield by 11, which is when it's due to hit up there. The goal is to just outrun the storm.

Peace out. Pray for my safety and for all traveling today.